SE. China's Quanzhou launches westbound China-Europe freight train route

A freight train bound for Europe pulls out of Quanzhou East Railway Station in Quanzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, May 14, 2022. (Xinhua/Wei Peiquan)

Quanzhou, a coastal city in southeast China's Fujian Province, has launched a westbound China-Europe freight train route recently, reported local media on Tuesday.

The new route was inaugurated by a freight train carrying 51 TEUs of goods with a total weight of 545.8 tonnes. The train departed from Quanzhou East Railway Station on May 14, and will arrive in Moscow via Horgos port.

The main shipped goods of this freight train included diapers, polypropylene films and other commodities produced in Quanzhou and surrounding areas such as Xiamen, Fuzhou and Zhangzhou.

Compared with traveling through the eastbound route via Manzhouli port, the new route has shortened the traveling distance by 1,491 kilometers, and the train will arrive in Moscow in about 18 days, 2 days earlier than before.

Meanwhile, the new route will also save more than 20 percent of transportation cost. 

Statistics showed since the first launch of the Quanzhou-Moscow China-Europe freight train on January 18 this year, Quanzhou Customs has witnessed a total of four freight trains, with a cargo weight of about 1,923 tonnes and a cargo value of 38.89 million yuan.